Through a new campaign, General Motors learned the hard way to not poke fun at bicyclists or indicate they are cheap. The recent debut of their advertising included the slogan “Reality Sucks.”
The advertisement is targeted toward college students, featuring the tag line
“stop pedaling… start driving.” The picture in the ad shows a man on a bike, looking embarrassed, as he rides next to an attractive woman in her car.
The ad is promoting their college discount for purchasing a car. Yet the advertisement for the discount is really rubbing people the wrong way.
"In one of the more remarkably ill-conceived car ad campaigns of all time, good corporate citizen GM is heading to campus to actively stop you from riding a bike by trying to make it look like it sucks," wrote the League of American Bicyclists blog. "Obviously it's been a while since GM execs and their creative teams set foot on campus."
"Shameless. But just more of the same from the auto industry," the Bike Portland blog wrote.
It was reported that General Motors’ officials said that the advertisement was only displayed at college campuses. GM is defending their campaign.
"The content of the ad was developed with college students and was meant to be a bit cheeky and humorous and not meant to offend anybody," said GM spokesman Tom Henderson. "We have gotten feedback and we are listening and there are changes underway. They will be taking the bicycle ad out of the rotation…. We respect bikers and many of us here are cyclists," he said.
Do you think the GM car discount advertisement is disrespectful or in good fun?
Tell us what you think by commenting on this post.
Category: Bicycle Accidents
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